Supported by some Competition Winners and followed up with a band of our newly formed Meetup.com members, we set off to discover the City of London. Don’t forget to check out our top 5 favourite list of Bridges in London.
Competition Winners
We had great fun meeting Nikki and her niece (pictured below) and our newest team members. Benji Saysell and Skins Elliot did a fantastic job supporting me to host my first ever Meetup and competition winners.
Benji was a great MC on the day and Skins took the fantastic photographs you see here in this Blog.
Instagram competition winners Nikki and niece
This ritual will again continue every Sunday for the next 3 weeks in order to test our self guided London sightseeing experiences.
What makes Beyond The Map London unique is that we’re offering high quality content in our curated walks, at an affordable rate.
It gives you, the user, complete flexibility – essentially you aren’t tethered to the tour.
There are lots of wonderful shops, cafes, restaurants, art galleries and museums on all of our walks and tours.
Being self guided, it allows you the flexibility to be spontaneous and satisfy your curiosity by giving you the freedom to stop off as frequently and for as long as you like.
Thankfully, it was a bright and pleasant day and whilst a tad windy and chilly there was no Storm Eunice lurking in the wings to ruin our best laid plans, unlike the previous week when we were forced to postpone our Walk, Londinium to London.
Londinium to London celebrates the story and rich history of London from Roman Britain AD 47. However, I have that pleasure tomorrow instead, so look out for our blog about that next weekend.
Thank you so much Nikki for entering our competition and taking the time to come along for the day, we enjoyed ourselves so much.
Bridges of London
Firstly, how many bridges are in London?
We can tell you there are 35 bridges which cross over the river Thames in London aka the Bridges of London, but don’t worry! We do not include them all in our bridges of London focused walk, Bridge to Bridge.
What is London’s oldest bridge?
London Bridge is technically London’s oldest Bridge as it has had four separate incarnations starting from AD50 with the current London Bridge being installed in 1978 and connects the City of London to the London suburb of Southwark.
Along the River Thames there is so much more to discover, but we won’t give you any more spoilers.
Starting at Monument our groups of 4 to 6 adventures from meetup – the Map Reader, the Google Operator , the Clue Reader, the Road Safety Officer, the Photographer and of course the Scribe, set off crossing London Bridge.
They went off and into the depths of Borough Market, passing the Golden Hinde, the remains of Winchester Palace before crossing the “not so wobbly” Millennium Bridge, whilst discovering observational clues that provided the amazing history you’ll discover throughout, as we point out plaques and notices all in a bid to help you answer our clues and brainteasers.
Malcolm Ball at Vinopolis, London Bridge
For me this is a well-trodden path given my time at Vinopolis and while this particular visitor attraction is no more, Borough Market and its plethora of cheese stalls which I personally can never resist, is still a Mecca for all foodies and food lovers, myself included.
Moreover even now after some 20 years of strutting these cobbled streets I discover something new and fascinating but I won’t give you any more titbits about the Bridge of London, that’s for you to have the pleasure to discover!
Having left the southside of the river, one is always mesmerised by the magnitude of St Pauls and how it wouldn’t look out of place in ancient Rome or walking down one of London’s oldest streets, the importance of Bow Bells and how World War 2 silenced those eerie chimes.
Our Top Five Bridges of London
1: Tower Bridge, London – We’re probably not alone in rating Tower Bridge as our absolute favourite bridge in London as it probably one of the most famous bridges in London, although so many assume it is London Bridge.
Its gorgeous Tudor style mixed with exceptional engineering makes it a stunning combination of elegance and utility. 10/10
2: London Bridge – I’ve spent hours imagining what the various iterations of London Bridge have looked like over the years, from a Roman wood and stone construct all the way up to the concreate Georgian bridge that now lives in the Arizona desert.
3: Millennium Bridge – Our love affair with the Bridge of London got off to a wobbly start, pun fully intended, but we just couldn’t imagine seeing St Paul’s Cathedral without it leading the way anymore.
Original Georgian London bridge in Arizona
4: Vauxhall Bridge – Crossing the River Thames in a southeast–northwest direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Pimlico on the north bank. It was opened in 1906 and replaced an earlier bridge.
Originally known as Regent Bridge but later renamed Vauxhall Bridge, built between 1809 and 1816 as part of a scheme for redeveloping the south bank of the River Thames.
5: Blackfriars Bridge – Built in 1869 on the site of an older bridge and famous for the carvings of birds and marine life on its piers. Whilst we love all the bridges of London, we couldn’t leave this one out due to these beautiful carvings.
Next week
Tomorrow, with our second cohort of competition winners and Meetup adventurers, we will be heading to the Square Mile to explore the City of London from Roman times, taking a look at the guildhall and all the livery history.
This is one of the walks that has gone through various names starting with London City Livery and London from Roman Times, but Emily has twisted our arms that Londinium to London fits nicely with our current naming conventions, so Londinium to London it is!
We’ve also been very busy slightly tweaking our branding colours and redesigning our product pages, making our check out even quicker and easier and integrating Apple Pay and Google Pay alongside the usual payment suspects and PayPal.
We will also be releasing an even more mobile friendly version of our walks and tours with more map functionality.
Behind the scenes we are busy working on some top secret funding applications from Innovate UK to expand the scope of Beyond The Map London as we want to bring you an experience like no other – watch this space…